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Anhktepot
Pharaoh Anhktepot ruled centuries ago in the great desert land of Har’Akir. The pharaoh, like most of his culture, was obsessed with death. Anhktepot was a priest of Ra, the sun god. Anhktepot commanded his priests to find a way for him to live forever. Many slaves and prisoners died horribly as subjects in Anhktepot’s gruesome experiments. Totally frustrated with the lack of success, the pharaoh had several temples burned and razed. He stalked into the Kharn temple, greatest of all in Har’Akir, and cursed the gods for not granting him his heart’s desire. Ra, sun god and patron of the pharaohs, answered Anhktepot. He told the pharaoh that he would live even after death, though he might wish otherwise. Ra did not elaborate. That night, everyone he touched died. His wife, several servants, and his eldest child-all were dead. Soon the great pharaoh came to understand his curse. So long as Ra shone upon him, he was safe. But once he was no longer under the sun’s watchful eye, whomever he touched died horribly. Shortly after the final ceremony of his wife’s funeral, Anhktepot was visited in the night. A mummy wrapped in funeral linens entered his chambers. By the vestments he knew it was Nephyr his wife. He fled from her down the long halls of the palace. Finally she cornered him. Unable to talk, the mummy Nephyr tried to embrace Anhktepot. Horrified, he screamed for her to leave him forever. She turned and left. Nephyr walked into the desert and was never seen again. Her tomb remained open and empty. Anhktepot was also visited by the mummified bodies of the others whom he had killed. He came to understand that he controlled them utterly. They did his every bidding. He used their strength and his own touch of death to tighten the reigns of his evil power over Har’Akir. He killed many of the kingdom’s priests, making them his undead slaves. The priests kept their spellcasting powers as mummies. Occasionally he would find one of his mummies destroyed, burned from the inside out. Anhktepot was convinced that Nephyr was responsible, but he had no proof of this. One day the priests rebelled against the pharaoh and murdered him in his sleep. The funeral lasted for a month. During it, Anhktepot was awake and helpless, trapped inside his own corpse. His mind screamed as they mummified his body. He was nearly insane when they entombed him. As the sun set, and Ra’s power waned, the borders of Ravenloft seeped into the desert kingdom to steal away the tomb of Anhktepot and the nearby small village of Muhar (also known as Mudar). When the priests returned to visit the tomb, all they found was sand and rock. It was as if the village of Muhar and Anhktepot’s tomb had never existed. Upon entering Ravenloft, Anhktepot discovered that he once again had control over his body. He now rules a small mud village in the middle of a barren wasteland. It is a bitter end for a man who once ruled a great nation and wielded great personal power. Category:Lawful Evil Category:Darklords Category:Mummies Category:Undead Category:Former Humans Category:NPCs Category:Inhabitants of the Demiplane of Dread Category:Males Category:Monstrous NPCs